﻿QERXAN BANAT. 



GERMANY. 



IfugiMcit* of ValuU, CIiwIm IX, and I»uia XIV. were born at St- 

 Ommtin, aad Loui* XIIL died Umni Among iU other hittorical 

 ■aodatieae miui be mratioiMd that it waa the raudenoe of James II. 

 oC^K^Iaiid. ila last royal oooupant AiW hii death io 1701 it was 

 Bef^ectad till 1809, when Napoleon aatabllihed in it a military lohooL 

 la 18U a body of 10,000 Encliah aoldiwa were quartered in it. It 

 aAerwarda ■arngd for a faarradi for the royal guarda. After the rero- 

 liition of 1 830 it waa offered for sale, but found no bidders It i< now 

 a miliury priaoo. The ChAteau-Neuf, built by Henri IT. for hia 

 mistraas OaibriaUe d'Bslriaa, ia now a heap of ruina. The foreat or 

 park of St.-OannaiB, aurroonded by walla and occupying more than 

 10,S0O acrea, ia adorned by trsea of immenaa aiia, and haa numeroua 

 bixHul avenue*. A noble terraoe, of mora than a mile and a quarter 

 in length and nearly 100 feet wide, extenda from the palace along 

 tha ikifta of the foreat, and afforda to the townapeople an agreeable 

 BteoMnadaL In the foreat are several email edi6cea erwted at 

 diff««ot periods by the kings of France, The most remarkable of 

 th aai b the straetnre called Lea Logas, formerly a monasteir, now 

 an orphan aehool, in which 220 orphans, daughters of members of 

 the L<gion of Honour, are brought up. The town baa a handsome 

 pariah church, in which is a monument erected at the expense of 

 Qeoige IV. OTer |>art of the remain* of James II., which were found 

 in making some alterations in the church ; a oom-market, a theatre, 

 and three handsome squares, of which the one called Place-du-Ch&toau 

 ia the largest. The manufactures oomdst of cotton hosiery, crinoline, 

 and leather. A yearly fair is held for busineaa ; and one a few days 

 aflarwards for pleasure : the latter, which is called the fair of Les 

 Logea, is held in the forest for three days after the SOth of August, 

 ana is one of the gayest in France, attracting numeroua Tisitor* 

 from Paiia and the surrounding country. There are many schools in 

 the town and neighbourtiood. A weekly market is held every Monday 

 diiafly for the aalig of piga, of which above 100,000 are annually sold 

 in the town. St-Oermain is considered a very healthy place. In 

 the picturesque nomenclature of the French republicans it bore the 

 name of Umtogme^m-Bon-Air. 



OEKMAN BANAT. [Serbia and TsKEtVAB Banat.] 

 GERMANS, ST., Cornwall, a market-town, and the seat of a Poor- 

 Law Union, in the parish of St Germans, ia situated on the small 

 river Tidi, in 50' W N. lat, 4' 16' W. long., distant 22 mUes E.S.E. 

 from Bodmin, and 228 miles KW. from London. The town is governed 

 by a portreve. The population of the town in 1851 waa 2967. The 

 living is a perpetual curacy in the archdeaconry of Cornwall and 

 dioBiaa of Exeter. St. OermanaPoor^Law Union contains 13 parishes 

 and oiM chapclry, with an area of 42,141 acres, and a population in 

 1851 of 16,542. 



The town of St. Germans stands on the southern slope of a tolerably 

 high hill, and cunaists chiefly of one street. It was once the seat of 

 a bishop, aflerwards nnited with tlie bishopric of Crediton, and from 

 tJua union aroaa the see of Exeter. The parish diuroh, which waa 

 oaee the ohoroh of a monaatety of Augustinian priesta, and is said to 

 have been the eathedral ohuroh of Uie diocese, was formerly much 

 more exteunva. The aaeiant chancel fell to the ground in 1592 : the 

 church now oonsiHa of a nave and two aisles. The west front has 

 two towem : the north tower ia octagonal above and quadrangular 

 balow ; the south tower is quadrangular UirougbouL Between the 

 towan is the entrance, formed by a deep Norman arch with sharta 

 aad noaldinga, and two small Norman windows above. The south 

 aiaU is pointed, of later erection ; the pointed arch is found alao in 

 the wast front, which haa probably undergone partial alteration. 

 The Methodists have three places of worship. In the town are an 

 Bodowad aehool for poor boys. National and Infant schools, and a 

 paroahkl book-club. The seat of the Earl of St Germans, 

 oallad Port Eliot, occupies the site of the ancient priory ; many of 

 Dta are convenient and spacious, and decorated with 



The population is chiefly agricultural There is a considerable 

 t slisi y at the port At St Germans Quav oo^ are imported, and 

 laad-oras from mines In the adjoining pariah of Menheniot are ahipped 

 to Swansea (or amelting. The market-day ia Friday, and there are 

 two cattle fain io the year. 



(LyaoM, MagMk BrUammia; Wallis, CormeaU Segi$Ur; Ommmhm- 

 « ■ >< >■ frpm St. OtrwtoMM.) 



OEKMAN OCEAN. [Nobtb Sea.] 



GERMANY extends from 46' 5' to 67* 60' N. lat, 6* 20' to 20* 10' 

 B. ioa» It ia bounded W. by the Netherlands, Belgium, and France ; 

 & by SwitaerlaMl and the Austrian territoriaa in Italy ; K. by the 

 Uagdooia of Uungaiy, OaUda, Poland, and Pniaaia; and N. by the 

 Balti«L Ita area is eatimatad at S84,000 square milaa, or about twice 

 ■■d a half tU area of tha Britiah laUnda. 



n* iMaa included within Germany, and forming the Germanic 

 I, are as fellows (their area and population wUl be found 

 Koaors) :— Austria, Pnasaia, Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, 

 WUrtaobais, Bwien, Hoae (aisotorate of), Heaae (grand duchy of), 

 Ha k ls i n (dooby), Lauaaburg (duchy), Luxemburg (duchy), Brunswick, 

 MaeUsabuig-IMiwsrin, Na>«u, Uaxe-Waimar, Saxe-Cobuig and 

 Ootka, Sasa-MsiBiavaa-Hiidbutgbausen, Saxe-Altenburg, Mecklan- 

 boif-Stnlita, Oldaabaig, AnhatuDesaau, Anbalt-KenibiirR, Anbalt- 

 VUMtm, Sehwanboft^aadanhaasaa, Sehwarxburg-Uudolsudt, Lich- 



tenstein, Waldeck, Reuse (principalities of), Schauenburg-Li|>|>e, Li|<po- 

 Uetmold, Hesse-Uomburg, Liibeck, Frankfurt Bremen, and Uauiburg. 



All these states being desoribed under their several title*, and the 

 more important mountain rangea, riven, and other great physical 

 featurea oeing also separately described, it would be superfluous to 

 repeat such descriptions here, Wa therefore propoee uuder the 

 preaent heading manly to give such a general notice of the physical 

 geography of (3lermany as may facilitate reference to particular 

 articles, aiddiug a brief aketch of its history, language, and literature. 



Pki/tical Oeographf. — The surface is divided into four distinctly- 

 marked districts, two plains and two mountain regions. One of the 

 plains is low, and rises only a little above the level of the sea ; tha 

 other attains a considerable elevation. Between the two plains 

 extends a mountain region, wboee summits in no part attain the 

 Boow-line, which in this parallel ia about 6000 feet above the sea-leveL 

 To the north of this r^on extenda the low plain, and to the south of 

 it the elevated plain, which on the east and west is inclosed by moun- 

 tainous tracts belonging to that region. The southern boundary of 

 the elevated plain is formed by the Alps, which constitute thu fourth 

 natural division of Germany. 



The lowpi<un is only a small section of the great plain which 

 extends nearly over the whole northern part of the old continent 'I'his 

 section occupies the northern portion of Germany, which lies on the 

 southrm shores of the North and Baltic seas, and extends to the 

 peninsula of Jutland. Its length, from the boundary of the Nvtiier- 

 lands and the Rhine to the bonlen of Russia, inoludjng the kingdom 

 of Prussia, is nearly 600 miles ; but its width varies, being, on the 

 west of the Elbe, on an average about 160 miles, and to thu oast of 

 that river about 300 miles. There is probably no tract of country in 

 Europe of equal extent which has a less ferUle soil than this plain. 

 It is even less fertile than the steppes of Southern Russia to the north 

 of the Black Sea, but as it has the advantage of abundant rains, the 

 German plain is much better cultivated and more thickly inhabited 

 than the Russian steppes. The sub-stratum of this plain is formed 

 by limestone, chalk, gypsum, and sandstone, which are covered by 

 loam, clay, and sand to an average depth of 200 feet If this country 

 were aituated under a tropical oUmate and deprived of the abundant 

 rains and snow which annually descend upon it, the surface would 

 resemble the Sahara or the great Indian plain. West of the Elbe 

 the plain is nearly destitute of trees, and the fertile tracts occur only 

 iu the shape of oases, which are at great distances apart The most 

 fertile regions are along the rivers, which run iu depressions from lUO 

 to 200 feet below the level of the plain. These bottoms have a fertile 

 soil, which is covered in its natural state by forest-trees, and when 

 cultivated produces good crops. These bottoms vary in width, 

 according to the volume of water iu the rivers. Along the great 

 riven (Weser, Elbe) they sro from throe to six miles wide, where 

 these riven issue from the mountain tracts in which they originate ; 

 but farther down they widen to 20 or 80 miles, and even more. 

 Where the rivers approach the sea the bottoms are united with the 

 marshes which line the shores of the North Sea; these marches are 

 not of great extent, being only five or six miles across on the average, 

 but they do not yield iu fertility to any tracts iu Europe. Being 

 below the level of the sea at high tides, it is necessary to protect 

 them by dykes from its invasions. Nearly in the middle of the plain 

 occun a fertile tract, inclosed by two ridges of high hills, which isnue 

 from the mountain tract farther south, on both sidea of the parallel 

 of i'i" a. lat The more northern of these ridges, called the biiutel, 

 rises to the south of the town of Hanover, and runs westward ; the 

 southern ridge has the name of Egge east of Paderbom, but north- 

 east of that town it turns west-north-west, and is known as the Teuto- 

 burgi^r Wald, or Osning. Tbe valley between these two ridges is of 

 considerable fertility ; its eastern portion forms the principiUity of 

 Lippe Detmold, and its waatem belongs to the Prussian pruriuce of 

 Westphalia and the Hanoverian province of Osnabruck. That portion 

 of the plain which lies east of the Elbe has a somewhat ditierout 

 character. Tracts oovered with heath and moor occur here alao, not 

 contiguous, but separated from each other by great intervals of sandy 

 surfaoe. "rheae sandy tracts however are not destitute of vegetation, 

 nearly all of them being oovered by various kinds of pine, which give 

 the soil a greater degree of solidity. Still, all lands of this deiicripi,ion 

 are only cultivated in a comparatively few and favoured j>liices, and 

 the crops are very scanty ; but this portion of the plain contains a 

 greater number of fertile tracts, which in eouie places are of consider- 

 able extent The beds of tbe riven are leas depressed below the level 

 of tbe plain, and the rich lands along their banks have a greater 

 width. The marshes which are adjacent to such lands, and nuu-ly ou 

 tha same level with tliem, have been drained, and changed into 

 meadows and fields. Along tbe shores of the Baltic no marshes occur, 

 but the Urger riven, eapecially the Vittula and Niemen, form deltas 

 I at their mouths, whose alluvial soil is of great fertility, and can 

 hardly be exhausted by auocessive crops. Besides these thero are 

 several fertile tracts at some distance from the riven, whose soil is a 

 heavy loam of considerable fertility. 



Through the northern pari of this plain a higher tract may be 

 traced, which in general runs west and east but with two great bends. 

 It begins on the west at Oldeslo in Holstein, whence it runs east- 

 south-east nearly in a straight line to Sohwedt on the Oder, when it 



